Letters To The Editor

September 18, 2009

New naysayers

As a political independent I find it amusing that the naysayers who are knocking this president claim that he is trying to take away our freedoms. The noise is much louder now than during the terms of the last president and his vice president - when the same thing was going on.

Perhaps that is why a majority of the public voted for change. It would be nice if we could all agree on what would be good for all of us - and then see to it that it would be done.

John L. Voss

Hampton

A racism problem

I am white and have been a Democrat most of my life, but have voted Republican at times - for a particular person or cause. I am more centrist in my feelings.

The Republican Party had eight years to resolve our medical insurance problems but chose not to. Now it has the absolute horrors that history will show that the Democrats, led by a black president (unheard of), will accomplish this feat. The Republican elite would appear to have a racism problem. They deny and deny this, but words and actions would indicate otherwise. The party of Lincoln is no more.

Richard Reed

Newport News

Is about socialism

I want everyone in the mainstream media and the politicians in Washington to understand something. This is not about racism; it's about socialism. The criticism of the Obama administration and the policies that this president is trying to implement is the reason Republicans and conservatives alike are against this president. The only ones who keep bringing up the issue of race are the Democrats and their pundits on the liberal left. During President George W. Bush's eight years in office, the left said it was patriotic to criticize administration policies. Yet, when the GOP or anyone else says they don't like the way President Barack Obama is leading this country, they cry racism.

I don't want my country turning into another failed version of the USSR, Venezuela or Cuba. I don't want the government spending my grandchildren's future away. I want a more secure country, economically and militarily. These are the issues facing America, and it has nothing to do with "a black man being in the White House," as some liberal pundits have said.

Let's put aside any discussion of race and focus on the issues at hand. That is the only way we can move forward as a country. Otherwise, everything that Obama's election stood for will soon be forgotten.

Mark Piggott

Newport News

Driving in a flood

Over the past several weeks we have witnessed that the state of Virginia will give pretty much anyone a driver's license. Case in point: local news coverage of flooded streets with drivers attempting to plow through, risking their property and others'.

Not only do they not have sense enough to realize they are damaging their own property, but the "wake" they create causes water to enter businesses and homes. These people should be fined, made to pay restitution for the damage they inflict on others and have their insurance claims denied.